ELEC4122
Introduction This course draws on the issues of leadership and ethics trying to develop the decision making skills and processes of the student. The course is broken into two main sections ethics and leadership. Students are given a wide variety of information on different ethical and leadership ideologies given the opportunity to develop their own ideas and are tested upon the ability to reason and express their logic. Learning Outcomes *Describe important aspects of the social, environmental, regulatory, & organisational context of engineering *Identify ethical problems in an engineering context *Formulate and communicate consistent, coherent responses to such problems, using formal frameworks about ethics *Comprehend and critically examine ethical arguments proposed by others *Explain details of an engineer’s rights and responsibilities *Define technocratic decisions and some processes used to make them *Use different criteria to evaluate technological innovations, including aspects of sustainability *Help lead, i.e. facilitate the effective working of, a team (be it a technical project team those involved in using an innovation) *Identify ways to reduce risks, especially those associated with human limitations Major Work As part of this course students are required to produce a major ethical work which may be in a format of their choosing, subject to approval by course co-ordinators. This may take the form of any type of critical essay, of a length of about 3,000 words, an oral presentation of about 15 minutes length, a song, a game -- anything you choose. Here is an [[oralpres|example of an oral presentation]] on the ethical concerns of mobile phone technology. Seminars As part of this course students are required to attend a 2hr seminar each week. During which students form small groups and take turns presenting ethical issues and their views on the subject. The group dictates how the time is spent in the seminar but there is usually time allocated to allow for a debate between the audience and the group presenting. Helpful hints for surviving seminars #Present the ethical issue NOT the technical aspects. The purpose of the seminar is to discuss the ethics not the tech; some background is usually required but should be glossed over #Relate the issue back to engineering. Some topics are obsquer so they need to be related back to engineering #Define! Define what the ethical issues are early in the seminar. Define the topic that is being discussed. Alot of rambling debates occur because students are discussing different things due to ambiguity in the seminars presentation. #Questions. Students will ask questions, but others will simply raise their hand to state something. Raise your opinion through questions rather than statements. #Allow for questions #Be prepared. Slide show helps, projector can be organised by the tutor. #Present your opinion on the issue. Don't just raise the ethical concerns, formulate an ethical standing and argue it to the class Exams Two styles of questions(taken from old 4011 website) Short Questions These require specific, limited types of answers - less than a page. Some may ask for definitions/descriptions, some for explanations, and some for features of something. Long Questions Requires you to discuss situations/scenarios/cases from the perspective of the ethics involved: what has happened, what should occur & why. In these questions, marks are given for you identifying ethical problems and arguing your responses, ie the "what should/ought to happen and why" bit. It is not a case of trying to work out the "right" answer. It is, rather, a case of explaining why you think something is or is not the right answer. Ethical Frameworks Students are taught 4 main ethical frame works which can be used to evaluate decisions and situations. *[[Utilitarism|Utilitarism]] *[[Rights Ethics|Rights Ethics]] *[[Duty Ethics|Duty Ethics]] *[[Virtue Ethics|Virtue Ethics]] Ethicists are also concerned with whether there are absolute moral truths, where the moral truths are unchanging regardless of culture or time. Moral Absolutism Moral absolutism argues that there are some moral rules that are always true, that these rules can be discovered and that these rules apply to everyone. Absolutism takes a universal view of humanity - there is one set of rules for everyone - which enables the drafting of universal rules - such as the Declaration of Human Rights. Religious views of ethics tend to be absolutist. Why people disagree with moral absolutism: *Many of us feel that the consequences of an act or the circumstances surrounding it are relevant to whether that act is good or bad *Absolutism doesn't fit with respect for diversity and tradition Moral Relativism Moral relativists say that if you look at different cultures or different periods in history you'll find that they have different moral rules. Therefore it makes sense to say that "good" refers to the things that a particular group of people approve of. Why people disagree with moral relativism: *Many of us feel that moral rules have more to them than the general agreement of a group of people - that morality is more than a super-charged form of etiquette *Many of us think we can be good without conforming to all the rules of society *Moral relativism has a problem with arguing against the majority view: if most people in a society agree with particular rules, that's the end of the matter. Many of the improvements in the world have come about because people opposed the prevailing ethical view - moral relativists are forced to regard such people as behaving "badly" *Any choice of social grouping as the foundation of ethics is bound to be arbitrary *Moral relativism doesn't provide any way to deal with moral differences between societies Strategic Leadership '''Strategic Leadership''' provides the vision and direction for the growth and success of an organization. Managing change and ambiguity requires strategic leaders who not only provide a sense of direction, but who can also build ownership and alignment within their workgroups to implement change. It is difficult to define a leader and/or leadership but it is agreed that a leader must posses certain [[leadercharacteristics|characteristics]] to be successful. The leadership characteristics they possess influences their leadership style. Despite the multitude of leadership definitions, there are several common elements that transcend the many available definitions. Specifically, leadership involves * Processes and proximal outcomes that contribute to the organizational objectives. Proximal outcomes that leaders could facilitate in the pursuit of achieving organizational objectives could include developing organizational commitment among subordinates. * The application of non-routine influence. Non-routine influence implies that leaders must to have discretion in their actions and that their behavior should differ from influence provided through organizational routines. *Is contextually defined and caused. Leadership needs to be considered with respect to the context in which it is occurring. One example is examining how leadership changes across levels of the organization. More broadly, leadership in general refers to organizing collective effort in the pursuit of solving problems facing the group. Thus, leadership includes social problem solving and setting direction in social domains, often to achieve collective action or organizational adaptation . Overall, it is important to note that leadership necessitates the presence of followers and it is inherently discretionary —without people to lead or the element of choice, leadership cannot truly be exerted. Difference between leadership and management It is useful to distinguish between management and leadership as in recent years the terms are becoming synomous. One clear distinction could provide the following definition: *Management involves power by position. *Leadership involves power by influence. Abraham Zaleznik (1977), for example, delineated differences between leadership and management. He saw leaders as inspiring visionaries concerned about substance while managers he views as planners who have concerns with process. Warren Bennis (1989) further explicated a dichotomy between managers and leaders. He drew twelve distinctions between the two groups: *Managers administer; leaders innovate. *Managers ask how and when; leaders ask what and why. *Managers focus on systems; leaders focus on people. *Managers do things right; leaders do the right things. *Managers maintain; leaders develop. *Managers rely on control; leaders inspire trust. *Managers have short-term perspective; leaders have long-term perspective. *Managers accept the status-quo; leaders challenge the status-quo. *Managers have an eye on the bottom line; leaders have an eye on the horizon. *Managers imitate; leaders originate. *Managers emulate the classic good soldier; leaders are their own person. *Managers copy; leaders show originality. Evaluating Leadership Evaluating leadership *'''Leadership effectiveness''' refers to the ability to influence others and achieve collective goals. Some advocate leadership success should be based on the effectiveness of the team, group, or organization. However, leadership effectiveness is more often based on the perceptions of subordinates, peers, or supervisors. Effectiveness of leadership can be influenced by factors outside the control of the leader. *'''eadership emergence''' addresses whether an individual is perceived as the leader or being “leaderlike”. Emergence involves distinguishing between leaders and non-leaders and making comparisons. *L'''eadership advancement''', which involves the attainment of leadership roles over a career span. Effectiveness vs. Performance of Leadership =